Health and safety: design and layout of workplaces

Contracting Authority (MOA) 

This is the natural person or morality on whose behalf the work is carried out.

The originator defines the objectives and decides on the implementation of the operation.

Employer 

The employer may, in certain cases, perform the duties of the contracting authority.

Prime Contractor (MOE)

He shall be designated by the contracting authority on the basis of his technical competence to carry out the operation in accordance with the requirements of the MOA: titleContent.

Ventilation, ventilation and sanitation

The MOA: titleContent shall design the buildings in such a way that the layout of the working rooms allows the following:

• Maintain cleanliness
• Avoiding temperature and condensation elevations
• Avoiding unpleasant odors

These facilities are designed to:

• Ensure air renewal at all points of the premises
• Do not cause discomfort in the working areas resulting in particular from the speed, temperature and humidity of the air, noise and vibrations
• Do not cause significant discomfort to the sound levels resulting from the proposed activity on the premises

Employees may stay at the following premises:

• Spaces with non-specific pollution, premises in which pollution is linked solely to human presence (offices, sales hall, for example)
• Spaces with specific pollution, spaces in which dangerous or inconvenient substances are emitted. They can be emitted in the form of gas, vapors, solid or liquid aerosol (in a car garage for example). Exposure thresholds must be respected.

In order to protect the health of employees, installations must not contain materials which may emit dust or dangerous substances.

Facilities must be capable of regular maintenance and performance checks.

Lighting

Lighting is provided to prevent eye strain and resulting eye damage. It must make it possible to detect risks perceptible to the eye.

Buildings must be designed so that natural light can be used for the lighting of premises.

The workplace must have sufficient natural light. In working areas, the level of illumination shall be adapted to the nature of the work to be carried out.

The lighting equipment shall be settled in such a way that it can be easily maintained.

The employer shall lay down the rules for the periodic maintenance of equipment in order to ensure a constant state of good operation.

These rules shall be recorded in a document which shall be communicated to the ESC: titleContent.

Temperature

Workplaces must be designed in such a way as to allow the temperature to be adapted to the human organism.

The equipment and characteristics of the work rooms shall be designed to allow the adaptation of human temperature during work taking into account the methods and physical constraints.

The enclosed premises, which are assigned to work, are heated during the cold season.

The heating must be operated in such a way as to maintain a suitable temperature and not to give rise to any fumes which could endanger the health of the employee.

Sanitation and catering facilities

L'establishment must be designed to enable employees to keep themselves individually clean.

The building must have changing rooms, washbasins, toilets and, in the case of dirty work, showers.

Of sanitary facilities must be provided for establishments employing mixed staff.

One catering room must be provided in establishments with 50 or more employees.

For companies with fewer than 50 employees, a location that can perform other functions must allow workers to recover.

Characteristics of workplaces

Buildings shall be designed and constructed to withstand the following constraints:

• Combined effect of their own weight
• Extreme Weather Loads
• Maximum overloads corresponding to their type of use

Buildings must be designed and constructed in such a way that glass surfaces in elevation or roofing can be cleaned and maintained without danger.

In order to comply with safety and hygiene conditions, floors, walls and ceilings must be designed so that they can be cleaned and repaired.

Floors must be free of bumps, holes and dangerous inclined planes. They are fixed, stable and non-slippery.

Taxiways and access

The organization of circulation in the establishment must be taken into account when designing the building.

Taxiways shall be designed to:

• Allow easy and safe use by pedestrians and vehicles
• Protect employees who work near roads.

Hazard zones which cannot be avoided must be marked with appropriate signs which are visible to all.

Arrangement of workplaces and workstations

The surface area and height of the working rooms must allow an employee to perform his task without any risk.

A room of 1^er emergency assistance shall be provided, from the design stage of the premises where the number of staff is:

• 200 or more employees in industrial establishments,
• 500 or more employees in other establishments.

Outdoor work stations shall be so arranged as to allow rapid evacuation of employees in the event of danger or the rapid arrival of emergency workers. They are protected against falling objects.

As far as possible, employees must be protected from weather conditions.

They must not be exposed to excessive noise levels or to emissions of dangerous substances.

Steps should be taken to prevent falls and slips.

Signs concerning the health and safety of employees must be settled at the workplace.

Accessibility and layout of workplaces and workplaces for disabled workers

Workplaces in a new building are accessible to disabled people, regardless of their type of disability.

Workplaces shall be designed in such a way as to enable workplaces to be adapted to disabled persons.

Electrical network

Electrical installations shall be designed and constructed in such a way as to avoid the risk of electric shock, by direct or indirect contact.

Electrical installations must be carried out in order to comply with the following constraints:

• No active part shall be accessible to workers, except in rooms provided for that purpose
• In the event of an insulation fault, no mass shall present a dangerous potential difference

The rooms must have emergency lighting.

Fire and explosion risk control

Clearances, such as doors, corridors, staircases and ramps, shall allow rapid evacuation of the establishment.

Each clearance must have a minimum width of passage. The amount must be proportionate to the total number of persons required to borrow it.

A natural or mechanical smoke-removal system must be settled in rooms of more than:

• 300 mths² located on the ground floor and upstairs,
• 100 mths² for those who are "blind" or located in the basement.